Duke   University  Libraries 

The  Guerillas. 
Conf  Pam  q#i4i 

KR(»M    THI     KI'MMoMi     KXAXINER. 

It  may  add  to  the  interest  with  which  the   following 
lines  will  he  rend  to  know   tlml  Ihej  were  composed  in 
:t  Yankee  Bastile.     They  reach  us  in  manuscript  tbi 
the  courtesy  of  a  lately  returned  jiri.-.  hht. 

THE    GUERRILLAS- 

Awake  and  to  horse,  my  brotliers; 

For  the  dawn  is  glimmering  gay, 
And  hark  !  in  the  crackling  brushwood 

There  are  feet  that  tread  this  way. 

10  comethT"  "A  friend  I"   "What  tidii 

"Oh  God  !   I  sicken  to  tell 
For  the  i: trill  seems  earth  no  longer, 
And  its  Bights  are  the  Bights  of  Hell. 

"  From  far  off  conquered  cities. 

Comes  .1  yoice  of  stilled  trail, 
And  the  shri'-ks  and  moans  of  the  u0O» 

Ring  cut  like  a  dirge  on  the  gale. 

"  I've  seen  from  the  smoking  villiage 
Our  mothers  and  daughters  fly  ; 
le  little  children 
.Sank  down  in  ihe  furrows  to-die. 

"(in  the  banks  of  the  battle-stained  river  & 
I  stood  as  the   noonlight  shone,  ^^ 

And  it  glared  "i\  thp  f,UT  vf  my  brother  ^^mL 

As  111"  sh  1  wa   e  swept  him  "on.  ^JH 

"  Where  my  Bbtnewas  glad,  are  ashes, 

And  horrors  and  shame  had  been  there, 
For  I  found  on  the  fallen  lintel 

This  tress  of  my  wife's  torn  hair. 

"  Tiny  are  turning  the  slaves  upon  us 

And  with  more  than  fiends'  worst  art. 
Have  uncovered  the  fire  of  the  Savage 

That  slept  in  his  untaught  heart. 

"  The  ties  to  our  heart  that  bound  bin). 

They  have  rent  with  curses  away. 
And  maddened  him  with  their  madness 

To  l>e  almost  as  brutal  as  they. 

"  With  baiter  and  torch  and  Bible, 

And  hymns  to  the  sound  of  the  drum, 
Tbej  preach  i  he  •  '■■■  pal  of  Murder 

And  pray  for  Lust's  kingdom  to  come. 

saddle!  To  saddle  '   My  brothers  I 
Look  up  to  the  rising  sun, 
And  ask  the  God  who  shines  there. 

Whether  deeds  like  those  shall  be  done  1 

"  Wherever  the  vandal  ODE 

l'ress  home  to  bis  heart  with  your  steel 
And  when  at  bis  bosom  you  can  not, 

Like  the  serpent,  go,  strike  at  his  heel. 

"Through  thicket  and  wood  go  hunt  him, 

Creep  on  to  his  camp  fire  side, 
And  let  ten  of  his  corpses  blacken 

Where  one  of  our  brothers  hath  died. 

"  In  his  fainting  foot-sore  march 

In  his  flight  from  the  stricken  fray. 
In  the  snare  of  the  lonely  ambush 

The  debts  we  owe  him,  pay. 

"In  God's  band,  alone,  ia  vengeance, 

But  lie  strikes  with  the  hands  of  men, 
And  His  blight  would  wither  our  manhood 

If  wc  smite  no:  the  smiter  again. 

u  11  y  the  graves  where  our  fathers  slumber, 
By  the  shrines  where  our  mothers  prayed, 

By  our  homes  and  hopes  and  freedom 
Let  every  man  swear  on  his  blade, 

"  That  he  will  not  sheath  or  stay  it, 

'Till  from  point  to  hilt  will  glow, 
With  the  Hush  of  Almighty  vengeance 

In  the  blood  of  the  felon  foe." 

They  swore — and  the  answering  sunlight 

Leaped  red  from  their  lifted  swords, 
And  the  hale  of  their  hearts  made  echo 

To  the  wrath  in  their  burning  words. 

There's  weeping  in  all  New  England, 

And  by  Schuylkill's  banks  a  knell, 
And  the  widows  there,  and  the  orphans 

How  the  oath  was  kept,  can  tell. 


peRnulife* 
PH8.5 


